Full text of Pope Francis' letter to Chilean bishops

[Cathoholic]

If you don’t know the situation of what led to Pope Francis public apology, it might be best to begin with post number 3.

Then after reading that you will probably get a pretty good idea of what our Holy Father is alluding to.

Post number 2, chronicles some of the more recent related developments that are presented from a (Santiago) Chile news perspective.

From Catholic News Agency . . . .

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Full text of Pope Francis’ letter to Chilean bishops
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Vatican City, Apr 11, 2018 / 04:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a letter addressed to Chile’s bishops, Pope Francis admitted to making “serious mistakes” in handling the nation’s massive sex abuse crisis and asked for forgiveness. The pope summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome to address the issue, and invited victims to meet with him as well.
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Referring to a recent investigation of abuse cover-up in Chile carried out by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, Pope Francis said that after a “slow reading” of the report, “I can affirm that all the testimonies collected speak in a stark manner, without additives or sweeteners, of many crucified lives and I confess that this has caused me pain and shame.”
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Francis admitted to misjudging the severity of the affair, telling Chile’s bishops that “I have made serious mistakes in the judgement . . .

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Then from the actual leeter from Pope Francis . . . .

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. . . . I want to share with you the conviction that the present difficulties are also an occasion to re-establish trust in the Church, a trust broken by our errors and sins and in order to heal the wounds that do not cease to bleed in the whole of Chilean society. . . .

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See the whole story here . . .

Full text of Pope Francis' letter to bishops of Chile on sex abuse crisis

In a letter addressed to Chile's bishops, Pope Francis admitted to making “serious mistakes” in handling the nation's massive sex abuse crisis and asked for forgiveness. The pope summoned Chile’s bishops to Rome to address the issue, and invited victims to meet with him as well.

www.catholicnewsagency.com

 

[Cathoholic]

Here is a summary of at least the past couple of months or so . . . (From The Santiago Times) . .

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January 12th, 2018 . . .

Chile: Pope to face protests over child sex abuse in Church – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

santiagotimes.cl

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January 15th, 2018 . . .

Pope Francis arrives in Chile amid threats and protests – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

santiagotimes.cl

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January 16th 2018 . . .

Pope Francis sorry for Chile priest sex abuse – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

santiagotimes.cl

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January 17th, 2018 . . .

Pope Francis meets Chile sex abuse victims; ‘cries with them’ – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

santiagotimes.cl

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January 18th, 2018 . . .

VIDEO: Pope Francis hit in face by object thrown from crowd in Chile – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

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January 19th, 2018 . . .

Chile fumes as Pope Francis accuses priest sex abuse victims of ‘slander’ – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

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January 23, 2018 . . . .

Pope Francis offers partial apology to Chile sex abuse victims – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

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January 30th, 2018 . . . .

Pope sends sex crimes expert to investigate Chilean bishop – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

santiagotimes.cl

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March 9th, 2018 . . .

Piñera criticizes Vatican over child sex abuse in Chile – Chile News | Breaking News, Views, Analysis

santiagotimes.cl

 

[Cathoholic]

So you have an idea of what our Holy Father, Pope Francis is alluding to . . . here is a brief historical encapsulation . . . .

From Wikipedia . . .

Karadima case
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In February 2011 after several years of a Catholic canonical investigation, the Vatican found the Reverend Fernando Karadima guilty of sexually abusing minors and psychological abuse in Chile and sent him to a “life of prayer and penitence” and to “lifelong prohibition from the public exercise of any ministerial act, particularly confession and the spiritual guidance of any category of persons.”[1]
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Fernando Karadima
Father Karadima was a spiritual leader and father figure for young men from Santiago’s elite. Based in the “Parroquia El Bosque”, the parish where Karadima was based and which assists some of Santiago’s most influential families, he had trained 50 priests and four bishops:
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Andrés Arteaga (es), Vice-Chancellor of the Universidad Católica de Chile
Juan Barros Madrid (es), Military bishop of Chile
Tomislav Koljatic Maroevic (es) [1], bishop of Linares, Chile
Horacio Valenzuela (es), bishop of Talca
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Bishop Felipe Bacarrezza, also trained by Karadima, dissociated himself from the sect long years ago. . . .
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. . . In 1984 a group of parishioners reported to archbishop, Juan Francisco Fresno, later cardinal, about Father Karadima’s “improper conduct.” The letter was “torn up and thrown away,” according to a court statement by the parishioner. In those days, Karadima had managed to install one of his own as the Cardinal’s secretary. This priest was Juan Barros Madrid.
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In mid-2003, Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz Ossa was informed by parishioner José Murillo about the abuses of Karadima, assuming an investigation would be opened. . .
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. . . In June 2004 the first investigation into Father Karadima was opened by the Catholic Church. Two years later, the investigator stated to the cardinal his belief that “the accusers to be credible and suggesting certain courses of action.” Nevertheless Cardinal Errázuriz stopped the investigation . . .
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. . . In April 2010 a civil criminal complaint was filed by victims of sexual abuse by four men who were once devoted followers of Karadima. . . .
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After the Vatican’s disciplinary action, the Reverend Hans Kast testified that he had witnessed sexual abuses as did the Reverend Andrés Ferrada “but no one ever did anything about it.” . . .

Karadima case - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Annie]

Something I do not understand is how the Pope could have gone to Chile without having been properly briefed about this situation. People like the Pope generally have people on staff who tell them things like this to keep them from making such ghastly mistakes. heads should have been rolling at the Vatican…

 

[tseleehw]

It’s probably due to the people he surrounds himself with. Pope Francis is well documented to have an authoritarian leadership style, and those types of leaders tend to surround themselves with “yes men” as advisers that will not challenge the leader in question, no matter what. If you believe the rumors that are periodically published from the Vatican, that describes Pope Francis’ inner circle perfectly. So after he appointed the said bishop in question, no one likely attempted to get him to rethink his decision as has been evidenced over the last couple of years. That is what is truly remarkable about this whole situation - it was not a one time lapse of judgment or a single bad decision that was made, but a years long series of decisions that continued to be made, and it snowballed and culminated in the Pope’s recent disastrous trip to Chile where this news dominated the headlines above all else.

So there are really only two possibilities - the Pope’s advisers are bad, or Pope Francis is trying to get off by passing some of the blame to a third party as an excuse for his poor judgment. Though Pope Francis must share in at least some of the blame either way. But you are correct, heads MUST roll, or it will be a very bad look for him, as if his advisers were truly to blame and he doesn’t fire them, then he will look foolish for keeping people around him that have misled him so badly.